This specification relates to providing information relevant to user search queries.
Internet search engines identify resources, e.g., Web pages, images, text documents, and multimedia content, in response to queries submitted by users and present information about the resources in a manner that is useful to the users.
Users of search engines are often looking for an answer to a specific question, rather than a listing of resources. For example, users may want to know what the weather is in a particular location, what the definition of a particular word is, how to convert between two time zones, or the product of multiplying two numbers.
An answer box is a formatted presentation of content that is relevant to the query. For example, if the user's query refers to weather in a particular location, the answer box can include a forecast of weather in the particular location. An answer box has a category that is one of a predefined group of categories, and is formatted according to a template specific to its category. An answer box can also be associated with code that defines how content for the answer box is obtained. The code can be, for example, scripts or code identifying a back end server from which the content is received.